Authenticity of The Bible

        The Papists receive the Scriptures on the authoritative, infallible judgment of their own church, that is, the Pope; and I receive it as God's perfect law, delivered down from hand to hand to this present age, and know it to be the same book which was written by the prophets and apostles, by an infallible testimony of rational men, friends and foes, in all ages. And for them that think that this lays all our faith on uncertainties, I answer, 1st, Let them give us more certain grounds. 2d, We have an undoubted, infallible certainty of the truth of this tradition, as I have often showed. He is mad that doubts of the certainty of William The Conqueror's reigning in England because he hath but human testimony. We are certain that the statutes of this land were made by the same parliaments and kings that are mentioned to be the authors; and that these statutes which we have now in our books are the same which they made; for there were many copies dispersed. Men's lands and estates were still held by them. There were multitudes of lawyers and judges, whose calling lay in the continual use of them; and no one lawyer could corrupt them, but his antagonist would soon tell him of it, and a thousand would find it out. So that I do not think any man doubteth of the certainty of these Acts being the same as they pretend to be. And in our case about the Scriptures, we have much more certainty, as I have shown. These copies were dispersed all over the world, so that a combination to corrupt them in secret was impossible. Men judged their hopes of salvation to lie in them, and therefore would surely be careful to keep them from corruption, and to see that no other hand should do it. There were thousands of ministers whose office and daily work it was to preach those Scriptures to the world, and therefore they must needs look to the preserving of them; and God was pleased to suffer such abundance of heretics to arise, perhaps of purpose for this end, among others, that no one could corrupt the Scriptures, but all his adversaries would soon have etched him in it: for all parties, of each opinion, still pleaded the same Scriptures against all the rest, even as lawyers plead the law of the land at the bar against their adversaries. So that it is impossible that in any main matter it should be depraved. What it may be in a letter or a word, by the negligence of transcribers, is of no great
moment. Baxier, 1615-1691.